Page 52 of Those Summer Nights (Sweet Cravings 2)

I got back in position. This time my lifeguard let me run past him, but Reggie threw the ball to someone else. When I walked back over to Reggie, he high-fived me.

"Great job getting open. The next one is coming to you," Reggie said.

I smiled to myself. I so badly wanted to score against my lifeguard. Then I could do a touchdown dance and rub it in his dirty mouth. Thinking about his mouth was distracting again.

"And, hut!" Reggie yelled.

I ran past my lifeguard again and turned around. The ball flew toward me. I reached up and caught it perfectly. But before I could turn back around to start running, my lifeguard wrapped his arms around me.

"J.J.!" I screamed as we both fell into the sand.

He laughed as he rolled on top of me.

"Isn't this supposed to be two hand touch?" I couldn't help giggling. This was so much fun. He had done to me exactly what I was hoping to do to him. Tackling was so much better than limiting it to two hands. I liked my whole body pressed against his.

"I did touch you with two hands. And then I tackled you. I can touch you again if you need me to, though." He raised his eyebrow.

My body felt like it was about to combust.

"Hey, lovebirds!" Clint yelled. "Let's keep it going."

My lifeguard pushed himself up, put his hand out for me, and helped me up. "Oh, sorry," he said and pulled me in close. "I got sand all over you." He wiped his free hand across my ass and down the back of my thigh."

Holy shit. "J.J." I pushed my hand against his chest. "Stop trying to distract me."

"That's not exactly what I was doing, but that's an added bonus."

He released me and walked back over to his team. If he wasn't trying to distract me, what was he doing? I walked back over to my team as I brushed the rest of the sand off my ass. This time Reggie completely ignored me. Oh. Was my lifeguard really just trying to make Reggie back off? The thought made me smile. J.J. was jealous. I wasn’t just smiling, I was beaming. He was basically laying claim to me. Which was old-fashioned and should have infuriated me…but I wasn’t really a feminist. He likes me back!

On the next play, someone from my lifeguard's team intercepted the ball. They were stopped close to the end zone. Now I needed to try to stop my lifeguard from scoring. It was time to stop flirting and focus. He was going down. My lifeguard ran towards me and easily sidestepped me. Clint tossed him the ball and they scored.

Shit.

The game went on for a long time. After an hour or so, I was completely exhausted from trying to chase my lifeguard everywhere. He was too freaking good at football. Actually, they all were. I was definitely the weak link on my team. We were down by one touchdown and we were really close to the end zone. I ran past my lifeguard and turned around just in time to see the football sailing toward me. It was only the fourth one that had been thrown my way all day. I caught it. Because I’m a baller.

I sta

rted running. I'm going to score! I was a few feet away from the end zone when my lifeguard picked me up and hoisted me over his shoulder.

"J.J.!" I screamed.

He started running in the opposite direction toward his own end zone. His hand slipped to my ass. I wasn't sure if it was to steady me or because he just wanted to touch me. But I loved the feeling of his hands on me.

"J.J.!" I yelled again as he crossed the line.

He started to do a victory dance while still holding me.

I leaned down and slapped his ass. "Put me down. Obviously that doesn't count, cheater."

He slowly lowered me, keeping me against his torso. "I think it does count. You're such a sore loser."

"No, it doesn't count! You can't pick up players."

"Well, it might not count as a touchdown, but that was your last down. Which means you lose." He let go of my waist and grabbed the football out of my hands. He ran over to his team and high-fived all of them.

I walked over to my team. "Sorry, guys."

"Don't worry about it," Reggie said. "We'll get them next time." He leaned in closer to me. "Hey, I'm sorry about earlier, I didn't realize that you were dating J.J."

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